What is Wednesday.
This weekly Wednesday post is aimed at answering some of the more basic and critical aspects of tailoring and the terminology we use to describe them. It stems from realizing that I’m constantly throwing out different terms with my clients and quite often they’re unsure as to what I exactly mean. The goal of this section then is to alleviate this terminology gap and provide you with some know-how to talk tailoring with a little more ease.
What is…soft tailoring?
Soft tailoring is a bit of a catch-all phrase for describing a style of jacket that has removed all or a good amount of the materials on the inside of the jacket. The result is a jacket that will be light, airy and allows the wearer’s body to viewed as it is – in essence it will feel more like a sweater than a typical jacket.
For those of you who have been following the series up to this point you’ll know that we’ve discussed the natural shoulder line in #7, the difference between a natural and unstructured shoulder in #8 the concept of a jacket’s expression and structure in #9. All of these elements put together get us to this point where we arrive at either soft tailoring or a more structured style of tailoring.
The two images above are both examples of soft tailoring. The top is on the more structured side of soft tailoring while the bottom image is as unstructured and soft as one can find. The difference? The top image simply has an extra layer of canvas over the shoulder area that provides a touch more roundness in the appearance of the shoulder. Both examples are still light and airy but the more unstructured and soft you go the more fluid the jacket becomes. To some this is the pinnacle of tailoring whereas to others it looses the shape that one is looking to achieve by wearing a jacket in the first place. At the end of the day it’s all about personal preference.
As its been lately this is again a touch technical but also critical in helping you wade through the noise that accompanies suit terminology. As always please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions. Better yet book a free appointment and we can banter in person and see if we might be a good fit to work together.
Take care – Michael
info@martinfishertailors.com
